One of the members of my fleet is a 99 GT Zaskar which is spending it’s twilight years as my back-and-forth-to-the-shops type of bike.
It was cut down in it’s prime after I’d only had it for a couple of months when, during a spectacular collar bone breaking crash, the handlebars whipped round and put a huge dent in the top tube. The bolt on the x-lite bar-end created a dent within the main dent which provoked quite a bit of beard stoking when inspected by my local frame builder.
His advice was to claim on my insurance for a new frame as this one was terminally flawed and could fail quite spectacularly.
Anyhow, time has moved on and I’d like to remove the gears from it. It’s never going to be used off-road in anger for the reasons described above.
So, what bits do I need?
I’m guessing some form of chain tensioner as the frame has vertical dropouts. Which one strikes a balance of performance and reasonable cost?
What about the sprocket and adaptor, which ones to the STW singlespeed aficionados recommend? I’m keen to retain the Hope hub which is currently on the bike.
Chainset is XT (from the era of the square BB), and it’s going to need a new chainring. Which one?
And lastly a chain, which one?
Any other suggestions welcomed.
Ta in advance.